National film art is polluted with liberal thoughts – Mufti
GEORGE TOWN: The country’s film industry is now tainted and influenced by liberal thinking when artists are seen to have lost sensitivity to the purity of religion, especially Islam, which should be respected as the national religion.
Mufti of Penang, Datuk Seri Wan Salim Wan Mohd Noor said, for the liberal minded, they think that nothing in this life needs to be respected.
According to him, for that group, all things can be played with, boxed in and even insulted and ridiculed according to their will.
“There are indeed some film people who follow art for art’s sake.
“This group does not care about the effect of artistic activities produced on the damage of the audience’s beliefs and behavior.
“What they care about is satisfaction in addition to the material benefits achieved.
“They prefer to magnify the bad events that happen in society due to the weakness of ordinary people.
“Their actions are the same as an audio-visual recorder that collects everything without going through a filtering or filtering process.
“While works of art should play a role in helping to cultivate and nurture the pure values needed for the development of a civilized nation which the government is trying to realize in order to achieve the well-being of all people,” he said when contacted on Friday.
He said this when asked to comment on an online film called Mentega Terbang which is allegedly against the beliefs and way of life of Muslims who hold the Syafie School.
He added that the production of the film is an example of misuse of the arts to mislead the servants of ALLAH SWT from the holy religion of Islam.
“Each citizen, especially leaders and policy makers, need to work together to ensure that the elements that destroy religion and good eastern traditions are not allowed to continue to run rampant and be moved by those who are irresponsible.
“This includes filmmakers and artistic activities that make fun of the religious beliefs of people of various races in our country.
“As a mufti, of course I am also against any art product that makes fun of my religion and other religions that Malaysians follow. We need to respect all the religions in this country,” he said again.
Wan Salim said, he often reminds liberals that as human beings who are gifted with common sense to choose good things and avoid bad things.
“It is true that we need to enjoy freedom, but as human beings, our freedom has limits, it cannot exceed the limits of the law, religious law and pure moral values.
“We are not animals that act only according to the impulse of lust alone.
“For Muslims, they are bound by religious rules in all their actions in life in this world.
“They are also required to believe in the afterlife where each individual will receive their own fate based on what they did while in this world,” he said.
Previously, the local indie film that was shown through the video streaming platform invited criticism and anger from the public following the work allegedly displaying scenes with elements of conflicting beliefs and religious beliefs.
The results of the Malaysian Islamic Development Department’s (Jakim) research into the content of the film Mentega Terbang found that there is a clear contradiction with the beliefs and way of life of Muslims in Malaysia who follow the Syafie Madhab.
Jakim will submit detailed comments to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM), so that action can be taken based on existing laws.
